Coffee Chat: Achoo!

Hello dears.  Do come in.  There's fruitcake today to have with our coffee.  And if you'd like we can take it out to the porch and sit.  It's quite pleasant outdoors now the sun has had a chance to warm but gracious it was cold and frosty this morning.

How was your Thanksgiving?  Ours was super busy and super nice.  I had 3 of my 4 children at home and 6 of my 10 grandchildren.   Our dinner guests were 18 in number for dinner and 14 for supper.   Thankfully there were plenty of leftovers to serve for supper. And enough leftover  still to put dressing and sweet potato casserole into the freezer.   Taylor barely ate which is odd for her.   But Isaac...That little boy put down bite for bite every bit as much as all the other children together from start right through to dessert for a finish.  And my but he was happy over it!   It wasn't long before Gramma had him down for a nap after that big meal.  He's going to do well with Thanksgiving traditions, taking his nap after eating turkey, isn't he?



I met my sister in law, John's brother's wife, for the first time.   We've technically been sisters in law since 2000 but we've never met.   We have now and I consider her a friend as well as family.  Despite traveling from Texas, a road trip that took two days, Pilar was up early Thursday morning and matched me task for task in the kitchen.  I didn't use a dish that she didn't pick it up right away and wash it, too.  She came prepared with the little things oft forgotten, like Cool Whip and cranberry sauce, as well as cookies for the children.  She also brought the ingredients to make a lovely fruit salad and a broccoli rice casserole.   Per her instructions I put the giblets in the bottom of my roasting pan to cook with the turkey and removed those for her to make giblet gravy.  Yum!  John doesn't care for giblet gravy but nearly everyone else likes it.  I made him some plain turkey gravy.  I now know where I've made my mistake over the years with giblet gravy.  Liver and gizzard and heart can make for a bitter broth and I've always cooked my giblets top of stove in a pan of water and then used that water to make the gravy.  What is really wanted is to use a fresh batch of broth and cook those giblets in the oven as she instructed me to do.  I am always pleased to learn something to further my cooking skills.  Despite her remembering to bring Cool Whip I forgot all about putting it out when we served dessert.

My best tip from Thanksgiving worked like a charm.  That was to add 1 cup of water to the roasting pan when you put the turkey in the oven.  It kept the meat from drying out, creating a nice steam that moistened the stuffing, too.   I can't remember where I read the tip but it was somewhere on Pinterest no doubt.  My sole mistake was that my pan for the turkey just really wasn't big enough.  Using the size pan I did allowed me to have room for broccoli rice casserole but that turkey filled that pan with broth.   The pan was heavy with the turkey in it and I sloshed it some when I was taking it out of the oven.   The grease and broth splashed into the bottom of the stove and smoked the house up really thick.  I opened windows and doors, turned on the stove vent and tried to wipe out that hot oven bottom but it's still smoking this late in the week despite being cleaned.

Needless to say it was a lot of work to get dinner on the table and the tables set up and then clearing it up all up.  But it was worth every minute of busy I spent when I was told several times over "Oh I've enjoyed today!  I've had such a good time!   The food was so good!"  by nearly every person present.

My oldest son and his children came back for breakfast the next day.  I'd told John the night before that I didn't think the children realized that all those strangers standing around them had been family.  So while we were waiting on breakfast, I explained to them that all but one person at our gathering was their actual family and belonged to them.  Their eyes got wide as they thought back to how many people crowded the rooms the day before.   Josh has a great concept of family and automatically attaches to anyone who is family but the young Cheney children don't seem to have any grasp of family at all.  I thought it important that they understand they were not an island apart in the midst of all those people.

Taylor at least attempted to eat with the children but eventually she gave up and came to sit beside me at the big dining table.  That was fine with me, of course.  She decided at one point that she needed to 'feed' me.  So she put a bit of food in my mouth, then took up her napkin and gently wiped my mouth clean, lol.  I glanced over at Katie who was watching the whole thing.  I don't think anyone but just the two of us was even aware of what Taylor was doing at that moment.    Taylor isn't familiar with the three young Cheney children but she called out to Josh several times.   Initially she had a slight fear of all the crowd but she soon stopped crying and settled into playing.  She more or less adopted Bess's mom and spent time chattering to her while Mama played with Hailey.  The boys were all outdoors enjoying themselves and kept coming indoors covered with dirt which is very boyish, don't you think?

The little princess table and chairs I found at the dump a couple of months ago were a huge hit with all the children, though Daniel is a bit big for it at 8.  However, they hauled it out to the back porch after lunch and took out the little cooking set I'd bought at the dollar store a few weeks ago and happily 'cooked';  boys and girls alike thought that toy was pretty nice.  I've just seen a toy stand mixer and a coffee maker in the Aldi catalog I'd like to get to add to the toy box if I see them in my store next week.

At some point the boys, who'd been playing under the carport with cars decided they needed to add dirt to those cooking pots to cook with.  I wasn't keen on having dirt all over the back porch.   But those little metal pots and utensils went right into the dishwasher that evening and came out sparkling clean.

It was a lovely day, really and truly lovely.  John told me multiple times how very much he'd enjoyed it all.

We didn't stay up late Thursday night, none of us.  John had come in from work Thanksgiving morning, and I'd been up mighty early two mornings in a row and Pilar and George were still lagging with all the long travel they'd done.  I would love to tell you I slept really well, but I was overstimulated by all the company and activity and my head didn't stop all night long, keeping up an endless amount of chatter.  I dragged out of bed Friday morning when the kids pulled up a bit after 7am.

John cooked eggs Friday morning which is his specialty.  Pilar asked if she might eat leftovers and I told her to  have what she liked.   That is a tradition with herself, eating leftovers for breakfast.  I attempted to eat eggs and toast but my plate grew quite cold by the time I'd helped each grandchild in turn with some portion of their meal.  I didn't realize until lunch how much I'd missed eating breakfast.  I'd barely had time to speak to my son on Thanksgiving day and was pleased he remembered Friday that I wanted a few minutes to talk with him and catch up.  We had a nice chat off to ourselves, before he left to return to Kingsland.

After the oldest son and grandchildren left, we got in the car and went on a long drive.  You'd think it would be the very last thing that our company would want to do but they are city folks and the lack of things to 'see' or do here really was a huge adjustment, as was the idea that every single thing they'd like to do involved 40 minutes travel.  We rode around where John and George's dad used to live and then we had dinner at mine and John's favorite restaurant.  It was so much later than we'd realized when we had our dinner.  It was nearly dark when we came home so we had coffee and pie for dessert and that was all the supper we had that evening.  Saturday was a repeat of Friday, with us eating a late dinner out and then coming home for dessert and coffee. 

Our guests left on Sunday morning, but not until we'd all taken pictures.

I'm ashamed to say that the photos of John and his brother and Pilar and myself were all the photos we took.  John had said to me on Tuesday night to be sure and use my phone to photograph the children...Well I was so busy and distracted I never once even thought to pick up my phone.  I was a little frustrated that evening when he said sadly after everyone left that we hadn't gotten one picture.  I did wonder why he'd not pulled out his phone and arranged a photo shoot since he has the same phone as mine and it takes pictures just as well.  I suppose he was as distracted as I.

John and I really enjoyed all the company but we were also a bit overwhelmed with it because it was such a contrast to our usual quiet days.  We are not accustomed to going about every day and eating out multiple times back to back, though it does seem we're doing more and more of both those things of late!  We attempted to recover on Sunday after our guests left but we also did some housework.  I put a meal in the crockpot to cook which seemed luxury to me after eating out.   We started the first of three loads of laundry.  John opened windows and aired the house and vacuumed the floors. We hung laundry on the line to dry.   I snuggled down in my chair and tried not to look as miserable as I felt.  I acquired a cold over the weekend and was hoarse as could be.


I didn't get my tree up on Thanksgiving night, but I did manage to bring it into the house on Friday.  It's not up, not really, unless leaning crookedly to the  side in an imitation of the Tower of Pisa counts.  I am going to have to find my tree stand for it.  My planned use of an old enameled chamber pot is simply not working.  I dare not put a single ornament on that tree as is, for fear they should all come crashing to the ground.  For once, thanks to that little post I wrote up, I am on top of my plans for decorating and Channukah and very nearly done with Christmas as well.  And oh joy!  Pilar left me with a bottle of champagne to have New Year's Eve.  How's that for a nice bit of serendipity?

Tuesday while John was working I really thought I'd take time to decorate for Christmas but I didn't feel up to going to the shed and I am  lacking any type of winter greenery/floral and didn't feel up to going outdoors to hunt any of the cedar that grows so well here on the place.   At present, I'm afraid my Christmas is basically a leaning tree.  Not a look I recommend.  I had such big plans for the day while I was alone but I accomplished less than I'd thought I might.  I got plenty done mind you, but it wasn't all that was on my list.  

I made the guest bed, which I'd left unmade on Monday after washing sheets and hanging them to dry.  I  cleaned the baths and swept and vacuumed floors.  I sorted out the fridge and moved a few things to the freezer.  I had quite an accumulation of dibs and dabs of stuff that will feed Maddie and Misu the rest of this week.  I picked up the house which was a longer task than I'd anticipated.  I sorted out my vintage magazines and made an inventory list of condition and issues so I'd know what to look for this coming year as I begin to replace the really bad ones.  And then I was thrown a bit of a monkey wrench in that a party meant to start mid December for Jamberry was moved to start this Friday.  I had to move from thinking of ideas to actually executing them.  It was what I call quiet work, work I could do while sitting and I was ready for that after working all morning long, but it was a long afternoon and evening bit of work so not nearly as restful as you'd think.

Towards evening, I decided it was worth lighting the tree even it was leaning crazily to the right, which was an alteration from it's previous leaning to the left.  Somehow the lower lights in the room and the soft glow of the tree combined to take away from the crookedness of it.   Which just goes to prove that the right lighting can seemingly mask many faults!

I had no time at all to read my Bible or listen to my praise and worship music through the visiting, though I did have music playing on Thursday morning while we worked at getting dinner together.  Do you know I found it very hard to pick back up where I'd left off  again.   I don't know why it is so easy to break a good habit and so hard to overcome a bad one!  But there you are.  I had to really discipline myself yesterday morning to sit down and read my Bible.  I wish it were as easy to give up eating too much or thinking negative thoughts.  But no, those things require me to practice giving them up repeatedly while I slipped right away from Bible reading and then had to toughen myself to stop and take it up once more.

Another habit that has come easily has been a seasonal one.   I close curtains when it just begins to be dark.  Now I find myself putting on my pajamas at that time, as well.  I am shorting myself of a good two or three hours of work, because once the pajamas go on the mind seems to go off, if you know what I mean.   Tuesday when I discovered I needed to work on those party plans I didn't allow myself to even consider pajamas until I was good and done with work.

The weather has been rather nice.  I'm glad of it because it's meant we could open windows and let fresh air and sunshine in. I believe in good old fashioned remedies for shoving away sickness and that includes air and sunshine as much as it does Vitamin C and fluids and rest.

Opening windows has also meant letting in a dozen or more of the Mexican Bean Beetles. Somehow they get around our screens and into the windows and then into the house.  I spent Tuesday evening collecting them to put back outdoors.  They emit a nasty little smell when you touch them, not anything ghastly but definitely something noticeable that is unpleasant.  I found them on curtains and walking along the edge of the toilet seat and playing a sort of bumper car game with one another on the molding that goes around the top of the wall.  I tried spraying them but their hard shell prevents any penetration of the oil in the spray from killing them.   They just marched right on across the ceiling as they'd been doing. 

Mexican Bean Beetles are a member of the lady beetle family but they are something of the wicked stepsister to Lady bugs.  Mexican Bean Beetles feed on plants rather than other insects and they are especially fond of burrowing into plant debris.  They skeletonize leaves of plants as they feed on them.   Living in an agricultural area, with plenty of plant debris in the fields at this season, these bugs are at their peak just now.  You can't walk outdoors without them flying at you.   When we hang laundry it pays to take time to shake and brush off every single piece before bringing them indoors.  The Farmer's Almanac recommends picking them by hand and killing them.  There are far too many to even think that might be effective here.  I'd rather just capture them if they get in the house and toss them out of the door.  Eventually they will go away.   They seem to be seasonal.  I rarely notice them when it's really cold, nor even in the heat of summer while crops are ripening so much but in the fall they become noticeable.

As I worked about the house Tuesday with the windows open I heard the geese flying southward.  I always think really they ought to be further along by now but I suppose there are many less cold areas to stop in on their way south.   In a few short months they will begin going back north and it will take them months to arrive.  It does seem their arrival in the south and subsequent stay is a bit like a vacation more than a seasonal thing.

It made me think of my sister in law who said they might go home on Saturday...or perhaps sometime next week.  I knew it had been a very long road trip since it took two days to arrive here from their home in Texas with one overnight stop.  I suppose it seemed a bit much to think of hopping back in the car to remake that journey in reverse after just two days!  However, in the end they headed back on Sunday and arrived home quite late Monday night.   She told me she enjoyed her visit and hoped to come back someday but not anytime too soon since it was such a long trek.

Today has been a fairly easy day.  I've been working on that next Jamberry party that starts on Friday and went out to the shed to gather items to decorate with for Christmas.  I made a quite good meal for us.  Dear John was worn out.  He said they got a whole half hour of rest last night at work after being busy all day long.  So I've kept to quiet work today...and chattering at you.

I suppose it's time to end our visit and move on to other things.  I could chat on ad on about a dozen or two more things but it won't decorate a tree or fashion wreaths from my old grapevine wreaths, nor address Christmas cards as I ought to be doing...So off I go for now.